Felt’s Factoid(s): PG took part in the longest game in state history, a seven-overtime contest in 1982. Provo ended up beating Pleasant Grove 51-44. ... Viking Bridger Anderson holds the Utah record for interceptions returned for TDs in a game with three in 1999 against Springville.

Felt’s Factoid(s): Davis has 559 victories, the most in state history. Davis holds the mark for making the most improvement (record-wise) and taking state. The Darts improved from 2-8 in 2003 to 11-2 in 2004 and won the 5A title. They defeated Cottonwood 50-43, in OT, in the highest-scoring final in state history.

KAYSVILLE — Typically when a high school football team wins its region championship, one of its greatest rewards is a first-round playoff matchup on its home field against a lowly fourth-place opponent from another league.

Davis High certainly earned the home-field advantage for Friday's 5A playoff opener by running the table and going 6-0 in Region 1.

But as for that lowly fourth-place opponent part of the equation, well, guess again.

The undefeated Darts (9-0) will take on a strong Pleasant Grove squad, which was one of four teams tied for first place in a highly unlikely and perhaps unprecedented outcome in Region 4. The Vikings shared the league title with Riverton, Lone Peak and Herriman — all finishing deadlocked at 4-2 in league play.

But Pleasant Grove, whose 8-2 overall record is the best among the four Region 4 co-champions, lost the subsequent coin flip for seeding purposes and was forced to enter postseason play as the league's No. 4 seed, which makes for a mighty misleading first-round matchup on the Darts' field.

Ryan Bishop, who guided Davis to the 5A state championship in 2004, has the utmost respect for Friday's opponent and his Pleasant Grove coaching counterpart, Les Hamilton.

"Pleasant Grove had a great year and I think the world of Coach Hamilton and the job that he does," Bishop said. "They're a good football team and, of all the teams across the state, they had an opportunity to compete with everybody they played against and they're definitely one of the better 5A teams in the state.

“They’re big, they’re athletic, they’ve got some playmakers and they're well-coached, so they're going to pose some problems for whoever they play. As you watch 'em on film, they're good on the defensive side of ball, they're sound and they get after you, and they’re a complete football team. They have an 8-2 record and you’re doing something right when you win eight out of 10 games, so obviously they’re doing something right.

“The bottom line is our kids had a great season and they put themselves in a position to go into the playoffs with No. 1 seed out of our region,” Bishop said. "To go through Region 1 and put a string of games together like we did, I obviously liked how that turned out. But that’s all over and done now and we can’t sit back and pat ourselves on the back.

"It is what it is, and this is how it shook out, so now we'll just let the chips fall where they may and go play the game.”

The Darts' formula for success is really quite simple — run the football effectively and play fierce defense. And after going through the regular season undefeated, Bishop figures it'd be downright silly for Davis to suddenly start doing something differently now.

“Our thing at Davis, and we’ve kinda done this all year long, is this is Week 10 and there are certain things you try to do week to week," he said. "We'll approach it like any other game and try to play great defense, try to protect the football and go into it the way we would have gone into a game five or six weeks ago.

"Just because we’re playing a really good team and it’s the state playoffs, we’re not gonna change things up now and we know it’s an opportunity to play one more week.

“I really, really like the way our coaches have gotten our kids ready to play, and I really like the way have prepared each week," Bishop said. "We just want to continue to be disciplined and do things the right way.

If you have ever played a football game against Davis High on their home field,
you would know that they have a great home field "advantage" and will
end up finding a way to win the game. I've played six games at Davis High
and our team
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8:36 a.m. Nov. 1, 2013

Top comment

UtahBruin

Saratoga Springs, UT

Gunner -

I agree with your post. You just may be right about PG. I
will still take PG, but I agree with you. If any region 4 team is going to be
beat, I think it is in this game. And you are right, a steady dose of Bingham
next week
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Randy Hollis is a member of the Deseret News Vis-Ed team, primarily working on copy editing and page layout/design for the sports department. He also writes a weekly sports column which typically runs each Sunday. He came more ..